Wow this story was a wild ride! The pacing in the beginning was a bit slow but once the action started it just kept going until the end. The characters were really great and they felt fully formed. I loved how inclusive the characters were, their sexuality was highlighted but was not the center of their character development. I love the genre of ecohorror and have read several mushroom horror based books. This one is now at the top of my list. The writing was clear and obviously well researched on the topic of mycelium. The setting was so vivid that I felt like I could see the forest around them. I would highly suggest horror readers and even thriller readers to check this one out.

DNF @ 38%

Maybe I'll give this a try again in the future or borrow it from the library, but it's just not for me.

I loved the premise and the cover, horror as a genre is growing on me and I like the bog horror. But this just kept dragging with nothing really happening and the further I went on, the more YA it felt rather than adult. Erin felt very juvenile, as did her hoard of friends. Speaking of them, we meet all of her friends (I think 6?) almost immediately and I was constantly getting them mixed up and confused. Way too many people too soon. They didn't really add too much to the plot, either.

That being said, I gave it two stars as I love the spooky atmosphere and the descriptive outdoorsy vibe of the PNW, but that's about it.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Tor Publishing for an ARC of this novel.

A creepy slow build, drama and trauma.
Erin knows something more than missing happened to her brother, Brian. Her friends travel to the forests of the Pacific Northwest - a mecca of missing people. Sifting through the town, the forest and residents, Erin pushes against the strangeness - determined to bring the light to the missing.

3.5 stars rounded up for NetGalley
Title/Author: Girl in the Creek by Wendy Wagner

Page Count: 272 pages

Publisher: Tor Nightfire

Format: NetGalley ebook

Other Books I Enjoyed by This Author: The Deer Kings, The Secret Skin

Affiliate Link: https://bookshop.org/a/7576/9781250908650

Release Date: July 15th, 2025

General Genre: Mystery, Thrillers & Crime, Horror

Sub-Genre/Themes: Sporror, eco-horror, small town, group of friends, secrets and lies, podcasts, journalists, wilderness/forests, Oregon

Writing Style: dual POVs, short chapters, casual prose, fast pace

What You Need to Know: "When she discovers the corpse of a local woman in a creek, Erin unknowingly puts herself in the crosshairs of very powerful forces—from this world and beyond—hell-bent on keeping their secrets buried."
I read this on NetGalley with the in-app reader

My Reading Experience: I am very familiar with Wagner's easy prose and engaging storytelling style and this is what I have come to expect. Girl in the Creek starts off with a unique POV that is peppered throughout the main narrative. I found myself looking forward to those sections. The main POV is a journalist named Erin who returns to her hometown to investigate a series of hikers who have disappeared in the same area, including her own brother. She joins up with some old friends and young people in the town with various skills to form a kind of Scooby-Doo-esque crew.
Wagner seems to be inspired by the same natural phenomenon I have been fascinated by too--a "zombie-ant fungus" that enters the body, kills it, then takes over the body's infrastructure. The missing persons mystery eventually collides with the growing fungal threat in the woods known as The Strangeness.
I had fun with this easy-to-invest-in horror-meets-crime-thriller. The pages fly by, but I will say the actual plot is not very intricately plotted-a point A to point B kind of mystery with predictable twists and turns. There were a lot of characters introduced with not enough time to develop them fully, so when the risks start doubling down, it was hard to care about some of them.
The descriptions of the fungus and the POV of The Strangeness were my favorite. Wendy Wagner is great at body horror and cinematic details. Everything was pretty creepy and gross.
I love the environmental elements and the very organic Oregon influence/flavor. I love horror set in the PNW!

Final Recommendation: Perfect for readers looking for rottagecore vibes, dank & dark forests, friend groups solving mysteries, sporror lovers, and something quick and easy to read on a campout.

Comps: The Spore Queen by Debra Castaneda, What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall, They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 rounding to 4

You will like this story if you like:
X-Files x Scooby Doo vibes
Mystery/Triller
Eco-body Horror
A touch of sapphic romance
Perfect for fans of Jeff VanderMeer & T. Kingfisher

The story is told from two POVs: main female character, Erin & a mystery character.

We follow Erin and her gang of friends untangle the mystery of multiple disappearances of PoC in a small town. This is a fast pace eco/body horror, murder mystery story. It’s short and easily finished in a day.

All the characters fell a little flat for me. But I did enjoy the story and held my attention. The ending did feel rushed and left me wanting more answers.

Thank you, TorBooks for my ARC 💕

Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Publication date: July 15, 2025
Print length: 265 pages

What....just happned. It was good but I'm slightly confused by the ending. Is Erin good or bad now? I'm glad they was able to recover several of the missing though so the family could have closure to a point. The book was a little slow in the bringing took me a few chapters to get into it. It was definitely a tangled web of a small town.

Extraterrestrial botanical horror!!

This was a fantastic read! You start out following the strangeness and then you follow Erin and her friends as they try to figure out what is going on in the woods lining the small town of Faraday. This had so many different turns and plot lines that the reader follows it almost felt as if I was immersed into the book.

Weirdly enough I was almost rooting for the strangeness….

*I received a free ARC from NetGalley*

I think that botanical horror (for the most part) just doesn’t catch my attention the way I wish it did. I enjoyed the synopsis of this book and I thought the cover was cool, so I gave it a try. There are so many characters, but you hardly get to know any of them because the story moves so fast. It’s hard to care about any of them because you don’t truly know any of them. I think that the writing isn’t for me, either. The dialogue lacked realism to me, which made me care for the characters even less. The mystery that we, as readers, are supposed to care about, doesn’t matter if we don’t have a reason to care for the characters we’re following. If the development of the characters was better, maybe it would be different and maybe the story would’ve caught my attention, regardless of the botanical horror aspect of it. It just didn’t hit for me, unfortunately.

Such a good story!! Highly recommend!
Wagner gives us a tale about Erin, a journalist, traveling to a small town in the foothills of Mt. Hood, to investigate her brother’s disappearance after hearing about several missing person cases in the same town.
What results is a beautiful tale of familial love, mystery, horror, and female rage. Wagner beautifully weaves together botanical horror, gore, mystery, thriller and sci-fi to gift us with “Girl in the Creek.”
This story is fast paced, with lots of action, gore, and beautiful fungi.
Readers may get lost in some of the science behind the story, but keep reading.

If you are a fan of T.Kingfisher, I highly recommend you pick this up.
Thank you NetGalley, Tor Nightfire, and Tor Publishing for an advanced copy of the ebook.

3.5
This book had probably the best fungal horror scenes that I have ever read. Ever. They were the bright shining stars of this book. Round of applause to the author on just those alone. So disgusting, I loved it. The inclusion of the Strangeness chapters were also great and the most interesting to me.

What felt weak to me were the characters. There were so many introduced at once that I was kind of lost for a bit of who was who. The book's pretty fast-paced, so that also kind of made them feel one dimensional to me, like I never really got a good feel of who they all were. Therefore, I really didn't care when they started getting knocked off.

It paints the town as a place where it's easy for young, minority women to go missing because the police don't care. But then it's like well the police seemed to just suck because nobody also seemed to care when Scott, a white man whose family owns a large portion of the town, goes missing as well. Like the police seemed really shitty right? Dahlia says she was putting up a missing persons poster like every month. Nobody called the FBI? So you'd think they were shitty but then Erin's like I know who killed Elena, it was this guy and the Deputy's just like yup you convinced me!" Despite the fact this guy was a former law enforcement? If she was that easy to convince, why are we pretending none of the cops here care?

I did appreciate there being so many red hearings for Elena's murderer even if they didn't feel fully developed to me.

I really didn't like Erin and Madison's relationship. They had a cute flirtmance for a night, then Madison leaves, and after all this trauma happens to Erin (also Madison losing her sister), they just happily met at a diner and kiss??? Maybe I missed something, but that scene felt like it took place not that long after the events of the night? There is a stereotype that sapphic relationships move fast and that felt like it fed into that. I think it would have made way more sense for Madison and Erin to go through all this horrible stuff together, building such a strong connection through that. It would have made their relationship way more meaningful. Erin says she's never felt more chemistry than with Madison but we're never really shown it, I feel like we hardly know who Madison is other than she tucks tail and rides when things vibes are off. Good survival instincts, I guess.

Bonus points for mentioning Emily Carr, an artist from my home province.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A fast paced Eco horror covering the devastation of climate change that is vivid and unique.

Book Stats:
📖: 265 pages
Genre: Eco Horror
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Format: NetGalley eARC
Series: Standalone

Themes:
🍄‍🟫 : Climate change
🍄‍🟫 : Death of Ecosystems

Representation:
🌲 : Queer main character

Tropes:
💗: Alien Invasion
💗: Hive Mind

🥵: Spice: 🚫
Potential Triggers: **check authors page/socials for full list.

Short Synopsis:
Erin heads off to a remote town in the middle of the woods in desperate search of her brother under the guise of writing an article about things to do in the area. When she gets there, she realizes something far more sinister is going on and her brother's disappearance may be involved. And not everything in the woods has good intentions.

General Thoughts:
This book was absolutely fantastic. The way that the book started off with mystery from the very beginning and continuously held your attention. I loved the way that the story is slowly ramped up with the gore aspect going from mild all the way up to honestly heartbreaking.

The premise of the book itself was interesting and unique. It had many subtle twists and turns that really captivated the imagination of the reader. The vivid descriptions made you feel like you were there and gave it a cinematic quality. While nothing in the book was necessarily groundbreaking as far as theme, the way it unraveled and was presented was stunning and fresh.

Our main character Erin definitely had some character growth and change throughout the story. I really enjoyed being in her head and reading her POV. It felt very layered and nuanced. The side characters were a little bit flat and felt very much like they were there for the betterment of the plot line. However, considering what they were doing for the plotline that did not bother me, and I really didn't need more from them. The relationship between the characters was well established, and that was enough.

There is a light thread of sapphic romance in this novel. It does take a giant backseat to the overall horror story.

I cannot wait to dive into this author's backlog. It's not very extensive so I feel like I should be able to get through it fairly quickly, but if this is the kind of writing, this author is putting out into the world. I definitely need more of it.

Disclaimer: I read this book via NetGalley eARC from Tor Nightfire. All opinions are my own. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Erin Harper's brother went missing while he was exploring the woodlands surrounding a small Oregon town. People have been regularly been going missing in this area for years. While looking for her brother five years after his disappearance, Erin finds a dead girl in a creek.

I was brought back to watching a few movies while reading this book;
John Carpenter's The Thing
Dean Koontz's Phantoms
Alex Garland's Annihilation
(Despite Ben Affleck, Phantoms kinda holds up.) This book seems to draw inspiration from some of the coolest works I've seen/read since I got into horror/sci-fi. Cosmic sporror and cli-fi meet up with a splash of Erin Brockovich. Our protagonist, Erin, is also a reporter who is using research for a story as an excuse to be out in Oregon snooping around for her brother. My only real gripe with this story was the characters got a little muddy for me toward the climax. I had a tough time keeping track of the actions of the people whose names I wasn't 100% on. That may have been a more me thing than an author/editing thing, but that's an issue I had. Really cool book overall. This is a story which I'd be happy to watch a '90s-style TV show. Every week and episode about a different character, serialized and drawn out to explore more missing people.

I look forward to more works by this author as well.

What an amazingly “strange” story! I love books set in the woods and have a nature twist. This did not disappoint. The story follows Erin who is looking for her missing brother who disappeared into the woods, and finds more than she expected. The story was a blend of horror, sci-fi, and mystery. I really enjoyed getting the POV of the Strangeness which I felt was such a different approach to the story telling that I wasn’t expecting. I felt that the climax was exciting and the ending was perfect! I highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

With heartfelt apologies to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group, I'm DNF'ing this one at 17%. Maybe I'll come back to it at some point (other reviews seem to indicate it picks up in the second half), but I have so much else to read that I'm excited for, and this is... not great.

I was enjoying the setup and the plot, and the writing wasn't half bad, until the group of super-sexy young "investigators" who are all hot for each other went off to get high in the woods WHERE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN GOING MISSING. I can't. I just can't. This is being marketed as "Adult," not YA, so there's no excuse for the characters to be this juvenile. When it got to the line where the main character says she "felt like a teenager again, back at summer camp and stealing touches under the craft table," I almost lost my breakfast. Because YES. THAT IS HOW YOU ARE BEHAVING. WHILE PEOPLE ARE GOING MISSING. INCLUDING YOUR BROTHER.

No. Nope. Sorry. I'm not doing this right now.

I have so many thoughts about this book. First I love books about fungus doing stuff and this delivers. This fungus is definitely doing stuff, but it isn't a gross fungus like other horror novels.
The ending was such a twist. I loved that. I loved every word actually.

Erin travels to the PNW to find out what happened to her brother, who went missing 5 years ago. We're introduced to a vast and diverse list of characters. Over the course of several events, Erin discovers that there's an alien fungus controlling and using the inhabitants of the forest and town as a battery.

If you're into "sporror" you might like this one.

The whole story felt very choppy. I really wanted to like this book, but it fell flat in the end.

The cover of this book is so good! I instantly was attracted to it. I thought the writing was paced well, the story was intriguing and the book was written well. This is my first from this author so I’ll definitely keep them on my radar.

Girl in the Creek follows the story of a young woman named Erin trying to uncover her brother's disappearance.
While investigating, she unravels some mysteries that have been plaguing this Pacific Northwest town and is determined to get to the bottom of it, by enlisting help from her friends as well as locals.

This story touches on how disappearances aren't taken seriously by authority figures, specially if the people involved are women and/or people of color.
It also shows us how desperate some people are in trying to find peace in a world that makes them feel othered, and how easily manipulable and impressionable that can make them.

I thought the story went by too quickly, specially with the amount of characters that were introduced. I feel like more time would've been appreciated
in order to develop and connect with all the characters. I often had to go back to remember which character was which. I also felt like some plot threads (pun not intended) where left up in the air.

Overall I would recommend this to readers that enjoy books about fungi and body horror, as the imagery was very vivid.

I loved this book! Wonderfully descriptive, very immersive. I liked the varied styles of writing between the parts from Erin's perspective and the more distantly narrated parts. I also enjoyed that it was set in the kind of small Oregon town I have traveled through and wanted to get to know better.

*Girl in the Creek* by Wendy N. Wagner is a gripping eco-horror novel set in the eerie forests near Mt. Hood, where the line between nature and something far darker blurs. Erin Harper, searching for her missing brother, uncovers a chilling mystery involving a vanishing corpse and sinister forces tied to climate change. Wagner masterfully combines atmospheric tension with a compelling protagonist, creating a narrative that keeps readers on edge. This novel is a must-read for fans of suspenseful horror with a touch of environmental commentary.